Tse (Cyrillic)
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Tse (Ц ц; italics: Ц ц or Ц ц; italics: Ц ц), also known as Ce, is a letter of the Cyrillic script.
It commonly represents the voiceless alveolar affricate Template:IPA, similar but not identical to the pronunciation of zz in "pizza" or ts in "cats".
In the standard Iron dialect of Ossetic, it represents the voiceless alveolar sibilant fricative /s/. In other dialects, including Digoron, it has the same value as in Russian.
In English, Tse is commonly romanized as Template:Angbr. However, in proper names (personal names, toponyms, etc.) and titles, it may also be rendered as Template:Angbr (which signifies the sound in Serbo-Croatian, Czech, Polish, Hungarian etc.), Template:Angbr (which signifies the sound in Italian and German), Template:Angbr (which was one of the conventions to represent the sound in Medieval Latin) or Template:Angbr. Its equivalent in the modern Romanian Latin alphabet is Template:Angbr.
History
Tse is thought to have come from the Hebrew letter Tsadi ⟨Template:Lang⟩ or the Arabic letter Template:Lang, via the Glagolitic letter Tsi (Ⱌ ⱌ).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> It is unclear what Egyptian hieroglyph originated the letter Tse, possibly derived from an image of a fish hook or a papyrus plant.
The name of Tse in the Early Cyrillic alphabet is Template:Script (tsi). New Church Slavonic and Russian (archaic name) spelling of the name is Template:Angbr. In modern Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian, the name of the letter is pronounced [tsɛ] and spelled Template:Angbr (sometimes Template:Angbr) in Russian, Template:Angbr in Ukrainian, and Template:Angbr in Belarusian.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
In the Cyrillic numeral system, Tse has a value of 900. Tse may also have been derived from Sampi (based on numerical relationship) or Fai (based on shape and numerical relationship).
Usage
Russian
It is the 24th (if Yo is included) letter of the Russian alphabet. It is used both in native Slavic words (and corresponds to Proto-Indo-European *k in certain positions) and in borrowed words:
- as a match for the Latin Template:Angbr in words of Latin origin, such as цирк (circus), центр (centre),
- for the German Template:Angbr and Template:Angbr (which in turn both came from the High German consonant shift), in words borrowed from German, such as цинк (Zink), плац (Platz),
- Template:Angbr may correspond to Latin Template:Angbr (before vowels), such as сцинтилляция (scintillation).
Unlike most other consonants (but like Template:Angbr and Template:Angbr), Template:Angbr never represents a palatalised consonant in Russian (except occasionally in foreign proper names with Template:Angbr or Template:Angbr). Since /i/ after unpalatalised consonants becomes [ɨ], the combinations Template:Angbr and Template:Angbr are pronounced identically: [tsɨ]. A notable rule of Russian orthography is that Template:Angbr is rarely followed by Template:Angbr, with the following exceptions:
- the ending -Template:Angbr of the plural number or the genitive case (птица nominative singular → птицы nominative plural or genitive singular),
- possessive suffix -Template:Angbr is spelled -Template:Angbr after Template:Angbr and only then: троицын, курицын,
- the suffix is very popular in Russian last names, but spelling varies and both -Template:Angbr and -Template:Angbr are possible, Ельцин is an example,
- the ending of adjectives -Template:Angbr (that becomes -Template:Angbr, -Template:Angbr, -Template:Angbr, -Template:Angbr in declension) such as куцый or бледнолицый,
- conjugation of a vulgar verb сцать (сцы, сцым, сцыт, сцыте, сцышь) and its prefixed derivatives,
- a few other word roots: цыган, цык- (цыкать, цыкнуть), цып- (цыплёнок, цыпки, цыпочки, цып-цып), цыц, цыркать,
- pre-1956 lists contain words such as цыбик, цыбуля, цыгарка, цыдулка, цыкля, цымбалы, цымес, цынга, цыновка, цынубель, цырюльня, цытварный, цыфирь, панцырь, etc. (examples taken from Ya. S. Khomutov's spelling dictionary, 1927 but now all those words are spelled with -ци-),
- Pinyin's Template:Angbr becomes Template:Angbr, and Template:Angbr becomes Template:Angbr.
Related letters and other similar characters
- Reversed Tse (Ꙡ ꙡ)
- Tse with long left leg (File:Cyrillic capital letter Tse with long left leg.svg File:Cyrillic capital letter Tse with long left leg.svg) was used in Old Uslar's Caucasian Alphabets<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> as is derived from Cyrillic letter Tse (Ц ц), with a longer left leg.
- צ : Hebrew letter Tsadi
- C c : Latin letter C
- С с : Cyrillic letter С
- Ț ț : Latin letter T with comma below, used in Romanian to represent the [ts] sound
- Ţ ţ : Latin letter T with cedilla, used in Gagauz to represent that very sound
- Ŧ ŧ : Latin letter T with stroke
- Ts ts ʦ: Digraph Ts
- Z z: Latin letter Z - same sound in German and Italian
